Blackmail claim by judge's wife

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The wife of a judge killed in a fireball claimed his mistress was blackmailing him and aborted a child she presumed was her husband's.

At an inquest, Jennifer Chubb admitted arguing with her husband, Andrew, hours before he died in an explosion in his shed near Chard in 2001.

The second inquest into the death, in Glastonbury, heard evidence from Mrs Chubb's police statements on Thursday.

Mrs Chubb admitted to an affair and said her husband was to end his affair.

She now lives in Australia and will not be attending the hearing.

It has heard Mrs Chubb told detectives she was "appalled" when her husband said he wanted to end their 34-year marriage.

If Andrew committed suicide, I don't know how he did it, how he caused that mammoth explosion Jennifer Chubb

Mrs Chubb said she had a "normal" marriage until her husband told her he was having an affair a month before his death.

"He told me he was having a sexual relationship with this woman and he had been trying to end it and that he said she was 'sort of blackmailing me and I've given her money. She is threatening to go to the press'," she said.

Mrs Chubb said he was desperate to spend less time with Ms Sparrow and that he had allegedly told her that Ms Sparrow had had an abortion, with what she presumed was his baby.

Mrs Chubb admitted she had also had an affair but said it had no impact on the marriage.

The inquest heard how she had inherited her husband's estate, had a combined £100,000 pay-out on life insurance policies and was given a £190,000 settlement from his employer and a legal pension.

Mrs Chubb also denied claims by two previous witnesses that she had repeatedly said her husband had committed suicide as the shed burned.

But she told detectives she initially thought he had committed suicide and told a friend a day later that he had killed himself.

Andrew Chubb died in an explosion in his garden shed

"If Andrew committed suicide, I don't know how he did it, how he caused that mammoth explosion," she told detectives, during another interview.

Earlier, Ms Sparrow denied changing her version of the events before the death.

She initially told police Mr Chubb had phoned her on the day he died telling her he had been thinking of harming himself.

But in a statement given to her solicitor later, she did not mention the threats.

Ms Sparrow, 38, told the inquest that the first statement had been taken when she was sedated.

She insisted that he had never used the words "harm myself" and that her lover would not have killed himself.

Ms Sparrow denied the blackmail claim.